This section lists the environment variables available from the server to CGI scripts and server-side echo commands (for example, <!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED" -->).

Unless otherwise stated the values of environment variables are not case sensitive.

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Note - The values and usage of some environment variables are based on HTTP header information. Describing all of the HTTP header information is beyond the scope of this manual. You can get a copy of the HTTP/1.0 specification (HTTP/1.0 - Informational RFC 1945) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Protocols/Specs.html.

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The following variables are available from the server to CGI scripts and server-parsed HTML files:
• AUTH_TYPE
• CONTENT_LENGTH
• CONTENT_TYPE
• GATEWAY_INTERFACE
• HTTP_*
• PATH_INFO
• PATH_TRANSLATED
• QUERY_STRING
• REMOTE_ADDR
• REMOTE_HOST
• REMOTE_USER
• REQUEST_METHOD
• SCRIPT_NAME
• SERVER_ADMIN
• SERVER_NAME
• SERVER_PORT
• SERVER_PROTOCOL
• SERVER_SOFTWARE

Also, the following variables are available only to server-parsed HTML documents:

• DATE_GMT
• DATE_LOCAL
• DOCUMENT_NAME
• DOCUMENT_URI
• LAST_MODIFIED
• QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED

AUTH_TYPE

AUTH_TYPE is set to the value of the Auth-Scheme token in the request for the CGI script or .shtml file. If no access authentication is required, AUTH_TYPE is null ("").

The Auth-Scheme is based on the ACL directive authentication_type, so its value is typicaly either "basic" or null.

AUTH_TYPE = ""

or

AUTH_TYPE = "Basic"

CONTENT_LENGTH

If there is data attached to the request, CONTENT_LENGTH is set to the number of octets in the data. If no data is attached, it is null. The value is the same as the HTTP Content-Length header.

CONTENT_LENGTH = ""

or

CONTENT_LENGTH = <decimal number of octets>

CONTENT_TYPE

CONTENT_TYPE is set to the Internet Media Type of the attached entity, using the same syntax as the HTTP Content-Type header. If there is no Content-Type information in the header, the variable is set to null.

CONTENT_TYPE = ""

or

CONTENT_TYPE = <Internet Media Type>

Internet Media Type values have the following syntax:

<type>/<subtype>

or

<type>/<subtype> ; <paramter>=<value>

For example, application/octet-stream.

Note that the Internet Media Types used by HTTP headers are similar to MIME types, but not the same. Refer to the HTTP/1.0 specification, section 3.6 for more information.

GATEWAY_INTERFACE

GATEWAY_INTERFACE holds a string representing the version of the CGI specification to which SWS complies (currently CGI/1.1).

GATEWAY_INTERFACE = "CGI/1.1"

HTTP_*

Environment variables that begin with HTTP_ contain header information read from the client request; for example, HTTP_HOST will hold the value of the Host header in the client's request.

The HTTP header name is converted to upper case, all "-" are replaced with "_", and HTTP_ is prepended to get the variable name. For example, the HTTP value of the If-Modified-Since header is stored in HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE.

Not all header names are converted to environment variables. Headers with sensitive authorization information ("Authorization") are not available as variables, nor are headers available through other variables (such as CONTENT_TYPE).

The following HTTP_* envrionment variables are available in SWS:

HTTP_ACCEPT = "" or <string of Internet Media Types>

HTTP_HOST = "" or <host name for URL requested>

HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE = "" or <date/time string>

PATH_INFO

PATH_INFO holds the name of a URI path to be interpreted by the CGI script. The path info is passed to the CGI script by using a "/" after the script name. The "/" is not part of the path, and the path is treated as a URI on the current host. PATH_TRANSLATED holds the actual filesystem path name to the resource named by PATH_INFO.

For example, if the CGI script test-cgi is accessed in the following way:

http://hostname/cgi-bin/test-cgi/docs/index.html

the value of PATH_INFO will be "/docs/index.html".

In the URL invoking the CGI script, any path information must precede the "?" marking the beginning of a query string.

PATH_INFO = ""

or

PATH_INFO = "/"+<URI relative to host>

PATH_TRANSLATED

PATH_TRANSLATED holds a string representing the actual filesystem path for the URI represented by PATH_INFO. See the PATH_INFO entry for details on how the path is determined from the request.

For example, if the CGI script test-cgi is accessed in the following way:

http://hostname/cgi-bin/test-cgi/docs/index.html

the value of PATH_TRANSLATED might be "/var/http/demo/public/docs/index.html".

PATH_INFO = <OS path name represented by PATH_INFO URI>

QUERY_STRING

QUERY_STRING is an encoded string that can hold arbitrary parameters to be passed as arguments to the CGI script. In the script URL, everything after a "?" is stored in QUERY_STRING and passed to the script as the first argument.

ASCII characters can be included in the QUERY_STRING using the hexadecimal ASCII value in the form "%<hex-digit><hex-digit>". The sequence is converted to an ASCII character before being stored in QUERY_STRING.

For example, if the CGI script test-cgi is accessed in the following way:

http://hostname/cgi-bin/test-cgi?foo%20bar

the value of QUERY_STRING will be "foo bar".

QUERY_STRING = <any string>

REMOTE_ADDR

REMOTE_ADDR holds the IP address of the agent that sent the request to the server (client or client proxy, for example). The address is four numbers separated by dots ("129.146.73.110"). REMOTE_ADDR is never null.

REMOTE_ADDR = <IP address in n.n.n.n form>

REMOTE_HOST

If cgi_dns_enable is set to "yes" in the server configuration file, then the fully qualified domain name of the agent sending the request to the server is stored in REMOTE_HOST. If cgi_dns_enable is off, then REMOTE_HOST is null.

REMOTE_HOST = ""

or

REMOTE_HOST = <host name>

REMOTE_USER

If AUTH_TYPE is "Basic", then REMOTE_USER stores the user ID sent by the client, otherwise it is null. No authentication information is stored in REMOTE_USER. The user ID may contain other information in addition to just the user name.

REMOTE_USER = ""

or

REMOTE_USER = <user ID>

REQUEST_METHOD

REQUEST_METHOD stores the HTTP method used by the request (GET or POST, for example).

REQUEST_METHOD = "GET"

or

REQUEST_METHOD = "HEAD"

or

REQUEST_METHOD = "POST"

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Note - REQUEST_METHOD is case sensitive.

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SCRIPT_NAME

SCRIPT_NAME is the URI path of the CGI script on the server.

For example, if the CGI script test-cgi is accessed in the following way:

http://hostname/cgi-bin/test-cgi

the value of SCRIPT_NAME would be "/cgi-bin/test-cgi".

SCRIPT_NAME = ""

or

SCRIPT_NAME = <URI path to CGI script>

SERVER_ADMIN

Holds the value of the server_admin directive in the server configuration file. Typically this is set to the e-mail address of a contact person for the server. The variable can be used in scripts and SSI directives to provide contact information in a page sent to a client.

For example, if HTTP "404 Not Found" errors are redirected to a CGI shell script, you could include the following to create a link to e-mail the server administrator:

#!/bin/sh echo 'Content-Type: text/html' echo '<HTML>' echo 'Questions and comments should be directed to' echo '<A HREF="mailto:'$SERVER_NAME'">' echo 'the server administrator.</A>' echo '</HTML>'

SERVER_ADMIN = <value of server_admin in conf file>

SERVER_NAME

SERVER_NAME is the server host name from the URL of the request, which may be a partial or fully-qualified domain name, or an IP address.

SERVER_NAME = <host name>

or

SERVER_NAME = <host IP address>

SERVER_PORT

SERVER_PORT holds the port on which the request was received.

SERVER_PORT = <port number>

SERVER_PROTOCOL

SERVER_PROTOCOL indicates the name and version of the protocol used by the server. For SWS 1.0, SERVER_PROTOCOL is always "HTTP/1.0".

SERVER_PROTOCOL = "HTTP/1.0"

SERVER_SOFTWARE

SERVER_SOFTWARE is a string indicating the name and version of the server. For SWS, SERVER_SOFTWARE is always "SWS-1.0".

SERVER_SOFTWARE = "SWS-1.0"

DATE_GMT

DATE_GMT is available only to .shtml files when ssi_enable is enabled.

It returns the current date and time for Greenwich Mean Time, formatted according to the timefmt directive (see SSI Commands Reference).

DATE_GMT = <date/time in Greenwich Mean Time>

DATE_LOCAL

DATE_LOCAL is available only to .shtml files when ssi_enable is enabled.

DATE_LOCAL returns the current date and time for the server's local time zone, formatted according to the timefmt directive (see SSI Commands Reference).

DATE_LOCAL = <date/time in local time zone>

DOCUMENT_NAME

DOCUMENT_NAME is available only to .shtml files when ssi_enable is enabled.

It holds the filename and filesystem path information for the current .shtml file. For example, for the URL http://hostname/directory/index.shtml, DOCUMENT_NAME could be "/var/http/demo/public/directory/index.shtml".

DOCUMENT_NAME = "/"<filesystem path>"/"<filename>

DOCUMENT_URI

DOCUMENT_URI is available only to .shtml files when ssi_enable is enabled.

It holds the URI path information to the current .shtml file or to the resource that generated the server-parsed HTML (if the file was dynamically created by a CGI script).

For example, for the URL http://hostname/A/directory/index.shtml, DOCUMENT_URI would be "/A/directory/index.shtml".

DOCUMENT_URI = "/"<URI path to document>

LAST_MODIFIED

LAST_MODIFIED is available only to .shtml files when ssi_enable is enabled.

It holds a date value representing the date and time when the current .shtml file was last modified. The date format is subject to the timefmt directive (see SSI Commands Reference).

LAST_MODIFIED = <filesystem time stamp of current file>

QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED

QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED is available only to .shtml files when ssi_enable is enabled.

Server-parsed .shtml files can accept query strings just like CGI scripts. This variable holds the value of any query string sent with the request for document, but without any substitutions made. Special characters sent as %<hex> sequences, such as spaces sent as "%20", are left unchanged (the string still contains "%20" and not " ").

QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED = <unmodified query string>

Copyright 1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.